HOW TO GRAB MEDIA ATTENTIONAnd raise your media profile

What are your media aims?• Media aims might include:

• Raising your profile and/or the profile of colleagues• Creating awareness about the work you do• Enhancing respect for your work • Building knowledge about the value of your work

• What was the purpose of this Q&A profile in the education pages of the Indian Daily Pioneer newspaper?• http://mail.dailypioneer.com/avenues/demanding-yet-stimulating.html

• And this article in The Guardian?•   http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/may/13/wanted-newly-qualified-physiotherapists

• Do you want:• To generate new business? (Kate)• Find new recruits? (Chartered Society of Physiotherapists)• Promote a particular product or service? (Physio First)

• Or do you want:• To safeguard jobs?• Ring fence services from further NHS cuts?• Encourage customers/clients/patients to make full use of your services?

• Who needs to know about you in order to achieve these aims?

Not sure how to identify your media targets?

• Just ask• Friends and family• Conduct a survey

• Survey Monkey 

• Once you know who they are, you can work out where to find them• You need to know:

• What they read• When they watch• And what they listen to

Don’t be precious• This is about getting into the media space consumed by

your target audience

• Don’t forget: big is not necessarily beautiful• And seek out the specialists

• What’s the best way of attracting press attention?

First steps• What makes a good press release or news alert?• Study the examples

• How do you rate them?• Things to consider:

• Presentation• Content• KISS

• Do these releases grab attention?

Grab attention• The first sentence of a press release or news alert - the

intro - must grab attention

• Think of it as a gift • You don't give the reader something that pleases you

• But something that you hope will please the reader

• The intro should also provide a succinct summary of the story

• How would you summarise these three releases in a way that might appeal to YP readers?

Killer intros• What did you write?

• Knostrop wind turbine• Work to build Leeds’s largest structure begins next week.

• Leeds International film Festival• Game of Thrones star Kit Harington and The Wire’s Dominic West to

star in opening night film at Leeds International Film Festival.• OR:• Emmerdale star to direct opening night film at Leeds International Film

Festival• Spadger's bike ride

• Health staff in East and South Leeds are getting on their bikes to raise money for two young people’s charities.

• Which would you spike?

And here’s what the YP did• Knostrop wind turbine

• http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/turbine-is-set-to-alter-face-of-leeds-landscape-1-6876939

• Emmerdale star’s revenge thriller opens film festival• http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/emmerdale-star-s-re

venge-thriller-opens-leeds-international-film-festival-1-6932480

• Spadger’s bike ride• http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-storie

s/cyclists-are-ready-to-hit-the-road-in-memory-of-late-leeds-teenager-1-6888140

Brownlee Foundation• What would be your response to this press release?

• Is there a story here?

The YP’s response• From: Joanna Wardill On Behalf Of YEP Newsdesk

Sent: 30-09-2014 15:39To: 'Maria O'Connor'Subject: RE: NOTICE TO PRESS: Brownlee Foundation – inaugural event

• What day is this taking place?

• http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/brownlees-inspire-leeds-pupils-to-go-for-gold-1-6872332

British Transport Police• What about this one?

• What would you do with it?

• http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/trio-jailed-after-cable-theft-causes-railway-disruption-1-6872257

What makes a press release effective?

• Which of the five press releases was most effective?• Which was the least effective?

• How can you write a press release or news alert that grabs attention?• What do you learn from the success or failure of these press

releases?

• Draw up six simple rules for writing an effective press release

Writing press releases: the rules• Rule 1:• Use an attention-grabbing subject line or headline

• Summarise the story in no more than ten words

The rules• Rule 2:• Write a killer intro that summarises the story in 15-30

words• Look at each of the newspaper intros – they tell the whole story in

one sentence• If you didn’t know anything else you would know what the story was

about

The rules• Rule 3:• Your intro should always answer the

questions who? And what? • News is always about people

• About what happens to them• And about what they do• Unless it’s about skateboarding ducks

• You might also answer the questions when? And where?• Your story should flesh out why? And how?

The rules• Rule 4:• Do your homework

• Study your target publications• What sort of stories are they covering?

• How do they cover them?• Plan and write your press releases or news alerts accordingly

The rules• Rule 5:• Timing is everything

• Your ideas need to hit the news desk just as the news editor thinks: “I need a story about...”• How do you do that?

• Planning ahead and understanding about different types of story• On and off diary • Features

• Pitching feature ideas• You’re a dietician: how would you sell a seasonal diet and recipe

feature to a news editor?• And when?

The rules• Rule 6: • Make it personal

• It’s a waste of time to send your press release to a generic e mail address eg @features or @news• Instead always target a named individual

• Not sure who that is?

• Find out!

The rules• Rule 7:• The pyramid structure

• What has happened?• How did it

happen?• Tie it

all up

• Use the six Ws!

And finally• The Guardian’s Letter to...feature

• http://gu.com/p/3ch28/sbl

• Every day you meet people whose lives are changed for the better because of the work you do• These people are your best publicists

• Use them!

Any questions?• Follow-up queries:• s.featherstone@shu.ac.uk